Remarks by the President at Bush-Cheney 2004 Reception
San Francisco Airport Marriott
San Francisco, California

12:05 P.M. PDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much. Thanks for the warm
welcome. Thanks for coming. It's great to be back in the Bay area.
Bradley, if that is a short introduction, I hate to see a long one.
(Laughter.) But I appreciate your friendship, and I appreciate your
leadership. I want to thank you all very much for supporting our
efforts. I want to thank you for coming and giving of your hard-earned
dollars. You are laying the foundation for a nationwide victory next
year. (Applause.)

I'm getting ready. I'm loosening up. (Laughter.) And I'm going
to need your help. I'll need your help not only financially, but also
to pass our positive, inclusive message around the Bay area. I want
you to remind your citizens, fellow citizens, that our vision is one
that is hopeful and optimistic.

Listen, there's going to be plenty of time for politics. The
political season will come in its own time. Right now, I'm focused on
the people's business in Washington, D.C. And we have a lot on the
agenda. And what I want to tell you is that I will continue to earn
the confidence of all Americans, regardless of their political party,
by keeping this nation secure and strong and prosperous and free.
(Applause.)

I'm -- I've just come from Washington to here, obviously -- I'm
going down to LA. I wish I came with my wife. I wish she were with
me. She has done a fabulous job. (Applause.) I will see her tonight
in Crawford, Texas. Well, she'll be the lump in the bed next to me,
since I get in at 1:30 a.m. in the morning. (Laughter.) But you drew
the short straw. Had she come and spoken, you would have had the long
straw. She is a -- she's a remarkable person. She has been calm and
steady in the face of significant crisis. She can smile, she can
listen. She is a fabulous First Lady for the United States of
America. (Applause.)

I do want to thank Brad and Gerry Parsky and the people that put on
this dinner and worked hard to raise the money. I'm so honored that
-- for your help. I also appreciate Dennis Miller. Obviously, after
your one-liners, Brad, he doesn't have anything to fear for his job.
(Laughter.)

We've been through some remarkable times in America during the last
two-and-a-half years. This nation has acted decisively to confront
great challenges. I came to office to solve problems, not to pass them
on to future Presidents and future generations. (Laughter.) I came to
seize opportunities, instead of letting them slip away. We are meeting
the tests of our time.

Terrorists declared war on the United States, and war is what they
got. We have captured or killed many of the leaders of al Qaeda. And
the rest of them know we're hot on their trail. In Afghanistan and
Iraq, we gave ultimatums to terror regimes. Those regimes chose
defiance and those regimes are no more. (Applause.) Fifty million
people in those two countries once lived under tyranny, and now they
live in freedom.

Two-and-a-half years ago, our military was not receiving the
resources it needed, and morale was beginning to suffer. We increased
the defense budget to prepare for the threats of a new era. And today,
no one in the world can question the skill, the strength, and the
spirit of the United States military. (Applause.)

Two-and-a-half years ago, we inherited an economy in recession.
Then the attacks on our country and scandals in corporate America and
war affected the confidence of the people. But we acted. We passed
tough, new laws to hold corporate criminals to account. And to get the
economy going again, we have twice led the Congress to historic tax
relief for the American people. (Applause.)

Here is what we believe and what we know. When Americans have more
take-home pay to spend, to save, or to invest, the whole economy grows,
and someone is more likely to find a job. We understand, as well,
whose money we spend in Washington, D.C. The money we spend in
Washington is not the government's money. It is the people's money.
And we're returning more money to the people to help them raise their
families, and we're reducing taxes on dividends and capital gains to
encourage investment. We're giving small businesses incentives to
expand and hire new people. With all those actions, we are laying the
foundation for greater prosperity and more jobs across America, so that
every single person in this country has a chance to realize the
American Dream.

Two-and-a-half years later -- (applause) -- two-and-a-half
years ago, there was a lot of talk about education reform, but there
wasn't much action. So I called for, and Congress passed, the No Child
Left Behind Act. With a solid bipartisan majority, we delivered the
most dramatic education reforms in a generation. We're bringing high
standards and strong accountability measures to every public school in
America. We believe that every child can learn the basics of reading
and math, and we expect every school in America to teach those basics.
This administration is challenging the soft bigotry of low
expectations. The days of excuse-making are over. We expect results
in every classroom all across America so that not one single child is
left behind. (Applause.)

We reorganized our government and created the Department of
Homeland Security to safeguard our borders and ports and to protect the
American people. We passed trade promotion authority to open up new
markets for our entrepreneurs and farmers and ranchers. We passed a
budget agreement to help maintain spending discipline in Washington,
D.C. On issue after issue, this administration has acted on principle,
has kept its word, and is making progress on behalf of the American
people. (Applause.)

The United States Congress shares in these great achievements, and
I appreciate the hard work of the members of Congress. We will
continue to work together to change the tone in Washington, D.C. by
focusing on the people's business, and by focusing on results. And
that's the nature of the men and women I asked to serve our country in
my administration. I have put together a really good team of people.
(Applause.) And the reason they understand is our jobs are to
represent something greater than ourselves, and that is the great
country called America.

And I'm proud of our Vice President. Dick Cheney is the best Vice
President this nation has ever had. (Applause.) Although my mother
may not agree. (Laughter.) In two-and-a-half years, we have come
far. We've come far in two-and-a-half years. We've accomplished a
lot. But our work is only beginning. We have great goals worthy of
this great nation.

First, America is committed to expanding the realm of freedom and
peace for our own security, and for the benefit of the world. And
second, in our own country, we must work for a society of prosperity
and compassion, so that every citizen has a chance to work and succeed
and realize the great promise of this country.

It is clear that the future of freedom and peace depend on the
actions of America. This nation is freedom's home and freedom's
defender. We welcome this charge of history, and we are keeping it.
Our war on terror continues. The enemies of freedom are not idle, and
neither are we. This country will not rest, we will not tire, and we
will not stop until this threat to civilization is removed.
(Applause.)

Yet our national interest involves more than eliminating aggressive
threats to our safety. Our greatest security comes from the advance of
human liberty -- because free nations do not support terror; free
nations do not attack their neighbors; free nations do not threaten the
world with weapons of mass terror. Americans believe that freedom is
the deepest need and hope of every human heart. And we believe that
freedom is the right of every person and the future of every nation.
(Applause.)

America also understands that unprecedented influence brings
tremendous responsibilities. We have duties in the world. And when we
see disease and starvation and hopelessness, we will not turn away. On
the continent of Africa, a continent I'll be visiting in 10 days,
America is now committed to bringing the healing power of medicine to
millions of men and women and children now suffering with AIDS. This
great land is leading the world in this incredibly important work of
human rescue.

We face challenges at home, as well, and our actions will be equal
to those challenges. I will continue to work on economic prosperity,
until anybody who wants to work and is not working today can find a
job. (Applause.)

And we have a duty to keep our commitment to America's seniors by
strengthening and modernizing Medicare. Last night -- or, actually,
this morning -- last night here, this morning in Washington --
(laughter) -- the Congress took historic action to improve the lives
of older Americans. For the first time since the creation of Medicare,
the House and Senate have passed reforms to increase the choices of
seniors and provide coverage for prescription drugs. (Applause.) The
next step is for both Houses to come together, iron out some details,
and get the bill to my desk. The sooner the job is done, the sooner
Americans will get the health care they deserve. (Applause.)

And for the sake of our health care system, we need to cut down on
frivolous lawsuits which increase the cost of medicine. (Applause.)
People who have been harmed by a bad doctor deserve their day in
court. Yet the system should not reward lawyers who are simply fishing
for a rich settlement. Because frivolous lawsuits drive up the cost of
health care, at the federal level the medical liability issue is a
federal problem that requires a federal solution. (Applause.) No one
has ever been healed by a frivolous lawsuit. (Laughter.) We need
federal medical liability reform now. (Applause.)

I also have a responsibility as President to make sure the judicial
system runs well. And I have met that duty. I've nominated superb men
and women for the federal courts, people who will interpret the law,
not legislate from the bench. (Applause.) Some members of the United
States Senate are trying to keep my nominees off the bench by blocking
up or down votes. Every judicial nominee deserves a fair hearing and
an up or down vote on the Senate floor. It is time for members of the
United States Senate to stop playing politics with American justice.
(Applause.)

This nation needs a comprehensive energy plan. We need more
natural gas for California's electric plants. We need to promote new
technologies. We need to promote new conservation techniques. We need
to explore in environmentally friendly ways. For the sake of our
national security and for the sake of our economic security, we need to
become less dependent on foreign sources of energy. (Applause.)

Our strong and compassionate nation must also be a prosperous, and
at the same time, compassionate place for all. I will continue to
advance our agenda of compassionate conservatism, applying the best and
most innovative ideas to the task of helping our fellow citizens in
need. There are still millions of men and women who want to end their
dependence on government and become independent through work. We must
build on the success of welfare reform, to bring work and dignity into
the lives of more of our fellow citizens.

Congress should complete the Citizen Service Act, so that more
Americans can serve their communities and their country. And both
Houses should reach agreement on my faith-based initiative to support
the armies of compassion that are mentoring children, that are caring
for the homeless, that are offering hope to the addicted.

A compassionate society -- (applause.) A compassionate society
must promote opportunity for all, including the independence and
dignity that come from ownership. My administration will constantly
strive to promote an ownership society in America. We want more of our
citizens owning their own home. We want people to own and manage their
own health care plan, their own retirement plan. We want more people
owning their own small business. We understand that when a person owns
something, he or she has a vital stake into the future of this
country. (Applause.)

In a compassionate society, people respect one another and take
responsibility for the decisions they make. We're changing the culture
of America from one that has said, if it feels good, just go ahead and
do it, and if you've got a problem, blame somebody else -- to one in
which each of us understands we are responsible for the decisions we
make in life.

If you are fortunate enough to be a mother or a father, you are
responsible for loving your child with all your heart and all your
soul. If you are a -- concerned about the quality of the education
in the community in which you live, you're responsible for doing
something about it. If you're a CEO in corporate America, you're
responsible for telling the truth to your shareholders and your
employees. (Applause.) And in the new responsibility society, each of
us is responsible for loving a neighbor just like we'd like to be loved
ourselves.

We can see the culture of service and responsibility growing around
us. I started what we call the USA Freedom Corps to encourage
Americans to extend a compassionate hand to neighbors in need. And the
response has been strong. And our faith-based charities are strong and
vibrant all across America. Policemen and firemen and people who wear
our nation's uniform are reminding us what it means to sacrifice for
something greater than yourself. Once again, the children of America
believe in heroes because they see them every day.

In these challenging times, the world has seen the resolve and the
courage of America. And I've been privileged to see the compassion and
the character of the American people. All the tests of the last
two-and-a-half years have come to the right nation. We're a strong
country and we use that strength to defend the peace. We're an
optimistic country, confident in ourselves and in ideals bigger than
ourselves.

Abroad, we seek to lift whole nations by spreading freedom. At
home, we seek to lift up lives by spreading opportunity to every corner
in America. This is the work that history has set before us. We
welcome it, and we know that for our country and for our cause, better
days lie ahead.